Red Skull
The Red Skull is a character, a supervillain that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the archenemy of the superhero Captain America,http://comicbooks.about.com/od/characters/tp/archenemies.ht and is portrayed as a Nazi agent. Created by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and France Herron, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. He has appeared as a recurring enemy of Captain America in various ongoing series, limited series and alternate reality series in the years since. The character has been adapted to a variety of other media platforms, including animated television series, video games, and live-action feature films. He was portrayed by actor Hugo Weaving in the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger. Red Skull was ranked number 21 on Wizard Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Villains Ever list and was also ranked as IGN's 14th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. Biography The origin of the Red Skull begins as a mere hyperbole from Adolf Hitler, when the fuhrer criticizes the Gestapo chief for letting a spy escape and says the hotel bellhop would make a better job. When Hitler turns to the bellhop, he recognizes in his eyes the actual potential to become the ultimate nazi soldier. Hitler personally supervises the bellhop's training, and creates a new identity for him to inspire terror on their enemies: the Red Skull. Throughout the war, the Red Skull faces Captain America several times, until a battle when the bunker where they are fighting collapses. Captain America escapes while the Skull is buried in the rubble, close to a life-extending gas. Decades later, in the present day, the Red Skull is found and freed by Advanced Idea Mechanics, an organization that has recently created the Cosmic Cube, an artifact able to reshape reality. The Skull betrays AIM and steals the Cosmic Cube for his own use, but loses it in a fight against his old enemy In other of the Red Skull's encounters with Captain America, he activates the Fourth Sleeper against the hero, but Sharon Carter uses the Sleeper's crystaline control key to make it intangible and unable to change back. It is seemingly during this time when the Red Skull's daughter, Synthia Schmidt, is born. The Skull tries to drown her because she wasn't the male heir he wanted, but decides not to do it and leaves the girl to be raised by a nanny. When the Red Skull gets the Cosmic Cube again, he uses it to change the mind of criminal Sam "Snap" Wilson to turn him into Cap's ideal crimefighting partner and have him as a spy. Sam becomes the Falcon and eventually becomes a real hero independent of the Skull's manipulation. The Cosmic Cube is destroyed. The Red Skull has proved to be so evil that even other villains consider him an enemy, like Doctor Doom And Ersnt Blofeld Joker Darth Vader Dr. Evil Super Villains to depose, and the Kingpin, who got in conflict with the Skull for leadership of the Las Vegas branch of HYDRA. During a second fight with Doctor Doom, the Latverian monarch manages to stop the Red Skull from using a hypno-ray to enslave all humanity and leaves him for dead. The Skull was rescued by Hitler, now in a cloned body as the Hate-Monger, and Arnim Zola. Months later, they make Captain America face Zola's genetic creations, and when the hero is exhausted, the Skull tries to finish it, but the fight is undecided. Shortly after having Captain America fight the Ameridroid, Red Skull finds out that the life-extending gas is losing its effect. When having his scientists investigate the aging proccess, they make his daughter grow into adulthood. The Skull has her kidnap Bernie Rosenthal, and also captures Arnie Roth, Falcon and Nomad to lure Captain America into a trap. Cap is defeated and brought to the Red Skull, who reveals he had a brainwashed Nomad secretly dosing Cap's food with a chemical that reverses the Super-Soldier serum, so he has the same accelerated aging disease as the Skull. Then Red Skull tries to have a last glorious battle against Captain America, but the hero refuses until the Skull makes Cap believe he has killed all his friends. Both aging men fight, and when Captain America wins, the Red Skull tells his enemy to finish him, but Cap refuses and the Skull dies on his arms, cursing him. Henry Pym devises a way to reverse the aging effects on Captain America, which the Red Skull's daughter tries to stop after cremating her father, but she only manages to be affected by the same proccess and is also reversed to her real age. Some years later, Arnim Zola revives the Red Skull with the same proccess he used on Hitler, but instead of cloning Schimidt's body, he uses samples taken from Captain America to give the Skull a new body based on his archenemy, with the same Super-Soldier serum coursing through his veins. Gallery Captain-america19.jpg Captain America 367.jpg References Category:Character Category:Villains Category:Males Category:HYDRA Agents Category:A.I.M. Agents Category:Nazis